


A Personal Mission

by spaceyquill



Category: Star Wars: Ahsoka - E. K. Johnston, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Fulcrum Days, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-04
Updated: 2019-05-04
Packaged: 2020-02-04 13:38:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,358
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18605629
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spaceyquill/pseuds/spaceyquill
Summary: In the early years of the Empire, Ahsoka goes searching for information that will lead her to Rex's whereabouts. She finds it.





	A Personal Mission

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Sildae](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sildae/gifts).



This mission had been eleven months in the making.

It didn’t help that Ahsoka was the only one pushing for it; Bail Organa sided with Mon Mothma more often than not when it came to missions requiring Fulcrum. But this, this was finally hers. It couldn’t be sidelined anymore by emergencies or higher priority targets.

The perimeter fence was at least twelve feet high, Ahsoka figured as she vaulted over the top and landed with an ease befitting a former Jedi. The area was deserted.

That wasn’t much of a surprise, as the Empire was slowly decommissioning all former clone-built bases. This one had been more useful than most, since a skeleton crew of Imperials still remained while other bases across the galaxy had been outright abandoned five years ago when the Empire shot to power.

Ahsoka stole into the darker shadow of a weathered building, but still spotted no Imperials.

She remembered this base, in fact. It was smaller now, but back when it was built, it was the closest Republic base to the Separatist homeworld of Serenno, a bold land grab that required the 501st and the 104th to guard its construction. That was right before their mission to Cato Nemoidia, which had been Ahsoka’s last mission before…

Ahsoka suffered the shiver that ran down her spine. She glanced around. Her mind couldn’t wander, not now.

The stillness of night heightened the sharpness of her montrals, but still she heard nothing. No roving stormtroopers, no machinery… silence. Despite being low on workers, she should’ve come across at least someone by now. Ahsoka crept toward the operations building, where her databank target stood. The operations building would be the last to close on this base, and the remaining skeleton crew of Imperial workers would guard it better than the perimeter. …Or any of the space she’d crossed since passing the perimeter.

Ahsoka stole to the rear entrance where she expected less surveillance and stopped short. A stormtrooper lay crumpled in front of the door. Alarms weren’t blaring, so whoever did this had probably just entered. One lightsaber hilt was in her hand as she slipped into the building.

The databank room sat in the very center of the building. She would certainly pass guards on the way there—

Turning the corner into the main corridor, her heart leapt to her throat. Three more stormtroopers lay scattered, in whatever awkward position they fell. Ahsoka took a panicked breath—this wasn’t Coruscant. This wasn’t that. These weren’t clones.

Clones. Her mission. Ahsoka shook away the memories that still haunted her after half a decade. With both lightsabers in hand, she dashed toward her goal. Two Imperial officers lay in front of the door to the data room, their blasters not far from their bodies. Ahsoka didn’t even register the lack of blood as she charged in, white sabers hissing to life.

A hooded figure stood at the databank monitor. He swiveled around at the sound of the door and fired. Ahsoka’s blades crossed just in time to dissipate the blue ring of a stun bolt. He started—Ahsoka’s reflexes always generated that reaction—but then the man lowered his blaster and dropped his hood.

“Ahsoka?”

She straightened at the sight of a face all too familiar, gasping with what breath was left in her, “Rex?”

More than the face, it was the look in his eyes she recognized, cutting and determined. Somehow not dulled since the last time she saw him. His hair was back to the length he wore when she first met him. His face was lined with a beard and lines befitting a much older man—older than even a fast aging clone.

Ahsoka recalled her blades, but all she could do was stand there, looking at him.

“What… what’re you doing here?” he asked finally. A beep from the databank snapped both out of their stupor. Rex snagged the datacard the machine spit out and pocketed it like his life depended on it.

“I’m here looking for information. The Empire doesn’t guard its Outer Rim bases that well and… that’s probably why you’re here, too,” Ahsoka said with a smile tugging at half her face. “I wanted all the listings the Empire kept on retired clones, so I could seek them out.”

Rex patted his pocket. “Great minds.”

“Would you be willing to share?”

Rex hesitated. “If it was anyone else asking…” His voice trailed off, as did the inspired spirit that her appearance had lifted. “What do you want with it?”

“Why don’t we talk about this somewhere besides an Imperial base?” Ahsoka asked, her fingers already getting twitchy around her hilts. The breath Rex had been holding came out, and he nodded.

They had not seen each other since that horrible night when the Republic fell into an Empire, but Ahsoka and Rex still moved like they had trained together: Ahsoka, with the lightsabers ready to go at any second out in front, and Rex, covering them with his blasters, on her heels. As Fulcrum, Ahsoka didn’t operate with a partner. But this felt natural.

She missed this.

Outside the base rose a city untouched by major Imperial presence. The Imperial Complex for this system landed on a neighboring planet, leaving this planet to only earn troopers patrolling the streets when a protest broke out. The locals had grown wise to this and now professed to be a model Imperial planet in order to keep the Empire away.

Ahsoka and Rex passed under a handful of large, floating screens displaying the Imperial banner on their way to the city center.

“So,” Ahsoka started, caught in the strange between of remembering how close she and Rex were, and knowing enough time had passed to turn them into strangers, “what’ve you been up to since I last saw you?”

“Getting my bearings. Laying low. Too low. Shoulda been doing something long before this.”

“It’s hard to do anything if you’re suddenly out of a well-supplied organization like we were used to. Just getting by is enough, sometimes.”

Rex sent a long look her way, appraising her in the neon lights of storefronts. “I guess you’d have more experience there, after what they did to you…”

Ahsoka could tell he was about to broach Coruscant, but she didn’t want to go there. “It all worked out in the end. And it put me on a path to continue doing my part for the galaxy as part of the rebellion. And it’s why I’m here right now.”

A Felucian-inspired botanical garden flourished along the connected rooftops of the city’s three central buildings, and it was here that Ahsoka and Rex wound up, walking in the combined light of the three moons and the guiding bulbs lining the curling pathways under the luminescent megaflora.

“You know,” Ahsoka finally said, once they had wandered away from the few people also taking a nighttime stroll, “I was coming to extract data about clones in the hopes that it would lead me to you. I didn’t expect it to work so well.”

A grin creased Rex’s face amid all that hair. “I’ve thought about finding you almost every day since… that night. I had no idea where to start.”

“And what would you do if you _had_ found me?” she asked, a playful tilt to her chin.

Rex scuffed to a halt. For once he looked lost. “I… never thought that far ahead. I never really thought I’d see you again.” His voice grew quiet. “I’m glad you’re safe.”

Ahsoka’s eyes stung. Here was the one person who had had her back throughout the war, who had taken her aside to drill and integrate her into better into clone operations, and who was the first to side with her plans, even before Anakin. She reached out, but instead of the hug she wanted, one hand merely landed on Rex’s shoulder.

“I’m glad you’re safe, too, Rex,”

Voices came from the direction they’d meandered; extra lights sprung up, bouncing in time to quick footsteps.

“They were spotted going this way,” came the unmistakable sound of a stormtrooper.

Rex sucked in air past his teeth—an old habit that would’ve delighted Ahsoka under any other circumstances. “They’re back by the lifts; that cuts off our only way down.”

“Not only,” said Ahsoka. She grabbed Rex’s hand and ran—away from the lights, the shouting, the people. Off the path, through the megaflora underbrush. Towards the edge of the roof.

“Do you trust me?” she cried over her shoulder.

“Never stopped!” Rex called back, though his eyes screamed a different feeling. Unmasked panic.

Ahsoka squeezed his hand tighter. And they both leapt over the edge.

She released him to angle her body into a faster plummet, spreading her limbs wide at the last second to catch herself with the Force. Ahsoka’s feet hit the duracrete with hardly a sound. She reached out her hands to cushion Rex’s fall, only to find he was falling much slower than he should have. He hit the ground and rolled like clones were taught, but popped up with a smile. He hadn’t needed her Force assistance at all.

“Anti-grav pulse boots. Figured they might come in handy one day, though never got to test them from that high before,” he said in answer to her mouth hanging open. “Where to, now that they’ve spotted us? Your ship?”

Through the tall buildings, Ahsoka glanced the jagged edges of a Star Destroyer in low orbit, and her stomach suddenly felt like it was still falling. That hadn’t been there ten minutes ago.

“Taking off now isn’t smart. The Empire will expect us to run, and they’ll be checking every ship that leaves. But I have a contact. Follow me.”

Ahsoka slipped into the nearest alley. Without complaint or question, Rex was on her heels. Just like old times. But she wasn’t his superior anymore, and Rex deserved to be treated like an equal.

“He’s been our eyes and ears here since before I joined the rebellion. At the very least, he’ll be able to hide us until this all blows over.”

“I’ve not tangled with the Empire as much as you,” Rex said, “but even I know nothing blows over with them.”

Ahsoka cast a smile over her shoulder. “Then we hide until the Empire grows complacent again.”

Minutes later, when the botanical rooftop skyscrapers were tucked away behind their immediate neons surroundings of shops stacked on top of one another, Ahsoka led the way up a stairwell to the balcony of a store. It was a cross between a tech repair shop and a convenience store. The convenience half kept it open at all hours of the night, and Ahsoka strode inside the well-lit shop. She nodded to the human at the register, who nodded back.

“That him?” Rex asked under his breath.

Ahsoka opened her mouth, but before she could say anything, a sharp voice cried out from the back of the shop.

_“That’s them!”_

Two stormtroopers rushed in from the back doors, followed by an Imperial officer.

“Detain them for questioning,” said the officer, taking a credit chit from his pocket and tossing it to the cashier.

Ahsoka’s lightsabers hummed to life. She felt the ripples from the stun rays before she saw them, and cut them in half in a single slice. Behind her, Rex fired his own blaster, downing everyone in the shop. She and Rex ran from the scene as one, directionless, yet their panic decisive enough to choose their path for them—away from the Empire.

Fire burned in Ahsoka’s veins, and they covered three streets before she could form her emotions into words.

“Yeah, that was him. I don’t know how long ago he sold out, though.”

They puttered to a stop when it was clear they’d lost any attempts at a tail.

Ahsoka hung her lightsabers on her belt. She couldn’t send a message to Bail; all outgoing transmissions were sure to be monitored. Leaving the planet was still a bad decision.

“Your life always this eventful now?” Rex panted.

“No, I just put on airs for you.”

Rex took in their surroundings, alert as ever. “Well, I may not’ve become a spy since leaving the army, but I have someone if you’re all out of contacts.”

“How much do you trust your friend?” Ahsoka asked between breaths.

“With my life. Follow me,” Rex said, nodding down the road.

Ahsoka fell in behind him and found herself staring again. A beard worked well on him. It softened the jagged edges that time had chipped away on his face. The rest of his hair might’ve been shorter than the beard.

“Do you still shave your head bald?” Ahsoka asked suddenly.

“When I have the time, yeah.”

“I think you look better with hair.”

“It’s not about the look, it’s the convenience,” Rex said over his shoulder, keeping his eyes in front of them.

“The convenience of looking like you’re fifty?”

Rex snorted, but their banter was short lived. “Here!” he called, pointing to a well-lit shop.

Ahsoka’s eye markings flattened. “Sepholla? Really?” A make up shop that prided itself on supplying clientele of all skin colors with makeup, from Twi’leks to Rodians to Muun.  

“The road next to it,” he said with half a smile—but a genuine smile that thrilled Ahsoka to the tips of her montrals, nostalgia and all. Rex took off down the narrow road, not pausing when it forked, and turning down offshoots without a second thought.

“Come here often?” Ahsoka asked.

“Once or twice. My friend moved here just after the war ended; I don’t think you’ve met him.”

Their conversation dropped as they emerged into a suburban area of multiplex buildings, with locals coming and going from their houses. Ahsoka followed Rex up to one unassuming house front that did nothing to stand out from all the other house fronts on this street. Rex knocked on a door, the faintest trace of a code. The door slid open. Inside stood a clone, looking more ragged than Rex, and armed.

“We’re going to need to lay low for a bit. She’s with me,” Rex spoke up just as Ahsoka peered over his shoulder. “This was my wartime commander, Ahsoka Tano. Ahsoka, meet Cut Lawquane.”

Ahsoka smiled and waved. The clone’s name wasn’t familiar to her at all.

“So a Jedi, then?” Cut asked, nothing about his features softening.

“Formerly,” Ahsoka said. Cut lowered his weapon with the slowness of second guessing himself, and Rex led Ahsoka further into the house.

With a clone standing guard, Ahsoka expected this to be a bunker, or a base of operations. But as she peered into the dark rooms they passed, she found it was really just a home, with furniture and decorations.

They ended up in a spare bedroom. Before Rex could say anything, Ahsoka whispered, “This is perfect! Just when my contact in this system falls through, you point me to a clone that lives here!”

Rex’s face hardened just like Cut’s. “Don’t get him any more involved. Right now, we’ve nowhere else to go. But the minute the Empire lets up, I’m out of his hair.”

Ahsoka bit down on whatever protest had already formed in her throat. Rex was right. Cut may be a clone, but he wasn’t hers to command, no matter how big of a boon to the rebellion he would be.

“So,” Rex said lightly, as if he had dropped all the stress of being chased by the Empire as easily as shedding a coat, “you said you wanted to offer me a job?” He sat on the only bed in the room, and Ahsoka sat next to him.

“I guess I did.”

“My going rate is three times the Imperial standard.”

Ahsoka couldn’t check the laugh that came automatically. “Are you trying to turn down the job or get rich?”

“I’ve carved out a life since the Republic fell,” Rex said. The hardness creeped back into his voice. “It’s been five years already. I don’t know how many more I have left. And now that it’s me talking—really, honestly me—I like not having to answer to anyone.”

Even with his hair, the scar on the side of his head shone through. The remnants of a successful chip removal.

Ahsoka let her hand fall on his arm. “I’ll save you the usual spiel I give everyone else, then.”

“Good to know I wasn’t your first choice.”

“Only because we couldn’t locate you!”

“I wouldn’t be my first choice,” Rex said with a smile.

The pleasant air between them thickened as Ahsoka’s eyes grew blurry. “I honestly thought I’d never see you again, Rex. I know splitting up after… all that was a good idea at the time, but I never stopped regretting that decision. We’re better as a team. And you don’t know how much I missed you.” Just as her voice cracked, Rex wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into a tight hug.

“I missed you, too, Ahsoka.”

They sat there holding each other, reassuring themselves that the other was really there. Really alive. The relief was palpable.

Ahsoka didn’t know how long they stayed like that, but when she pulled away, she had no reservations about trailing a hand down his beard. He responded with a kiss to her forehead that encouraged her to continue embracing him.

“With these records from the Empire,” Rex said, “I want to check up on my brothers to make sure they’re all right. Make sure their chips are out. I’ll contact you when I’m done and we can go from there with this rebellion of yours.”

Ahsoka pulled a communicator from her belt. “Use this when you want to get a hold of me. It’s paired to the frequency I monitor. Ask for Fulcrum.”

He looked it over, no doubt noticing the design on the back, the same as her forehead markings.

“You were never one for subtlety.”

“I can’t get it confused with other comms!”

“I never thought of just plastering my face on something before…”

“Rex!” she vented through a smile.

He pocketed the device. “We can check on the status of the Empire’s searching in the morning. But for right now, I’ll sleep on the floor.”

“Don’t be absurd,” scoffed Ahsoka. “The bed’s big enough for the both of us. Are you afraid I’ll bite?”

“I mean, you have in the past.”

“Okay, that was one time! I told you back then it was an accident.”

“I needed stitches.”

Ahsoka’s shoulders sank. “Fine, I forgot about that.”

Rex snagged one of the pillows and stretched out on the ground as Ahsoka watched him from her spot on the edge of the bed.

“How long do you think you’ll be?” she asked.

“Sleeping?”

“No, tracking down clones.”

“What I extracted is only a list of clones based locally in this sector. Still, there are hundreds of names, and just me. I don’t know.”

“Then call me if you need help. The rebellion owes me a few personal missions; I’ll fly out and help you.”

Rex smiled up from the floor. “You just want me to call you.”

“I do.”

“If the rebellion sent you on this mission, then they must still think we clones are important. I’ll see you all the time.”

“This is a personal mission,” Ahsoka admitted. “It took me a year to get them to agree to this.” When Rex’s face fell, Ahsoka slid off the bed and sat next to him. “But you’re important to me. That’s why I fought so hard for this.”

Without a word, Rex reached out and pulled her into a hug atop him, holding her like he’d never let her go.

 

The Star Destroyer was gone by the next morning, and Cut Lawquane planned to tell his guests so. Until he found them huddled together on the floor of the spare bedroom, sleeping an exhausted sleep he remembered from his soldier days.

He dragged the blanket from the bed and dropped it over them, deciding to come back in an hour.


End file.
